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Digipak Analysis Jack Johnson

Front Cover The front cover for Jack Johnson’s “in between dreams” uses black and yellow as it’s primary colour scheme. This reflects the “sunny” nature of the upbeat music and the acoustic pop genre. This also may be a reference to the singers place of origin in North Shore Hawaii. Another typical feature of the acoustic pop music genre that Jack Johnson has used is nature. The front cover depicts a tree that covers almost the entire frame, along side a smaller reference to a silhouette of the artist himself-complete with guitar to further induce the music genre.  The artist has also included a special edition label to show that this CD is a particular feature digipak that will ideally entice the viewer to pick up or buy the CD.  Another selling point this cover has is the sticker in the top left corner that states this CD includes some of Jack Johnson’s most famous tracks.

InsideThe inside of the digipak offers a continuation of the yellow theme but injects the calming and nature linked colour of green. The inside also introduces a leaf branch graphic that proves to be very bold and eye catching against the lighter colours.  The left panel of the digipak features a photo of the artist themselves, which provides a direct reference for the viewer and helps publicise their image. However this image is cut across to show the insert featured behind the image. I quite like the cut across of the photograph and the rounded edges that make the design seem clean and professional.

Consistency of designAs you can see the artist keeps this simple graphic very consistent throughout the artwork. This helps link all of the pieces of the digipak together and also create a sense of a finished product. The gaphic is very simple and abstracted yet maintains the link to the natural word the artist and the genre have.  In my own digipak I will strive to keep this level of consistency as I feel it provides a much more professional look to the product.

Credits pageThis photograph shows an inside page of the insert. This double spread shows a collage of photographs from the recording of the album including images of the artist as well as the production team. This provides a more personal feel to the digipak and helps the viewer to find out more about the artist.  The non professional collage method of collating these images also creates a home made look, full of colours and again the “happy” theme. The credits are sectioned to one side and in the continued black rounded font, with a light warm coloured background.

Back of insertThe back of the digipak continues the nature theme but this time introduces a third graphic, with a close up abstracted photograph of sweet pea pods. This image is very soft, slightly off focus an again very warm in tint (especially the graduated warm orange at the base of the frame).  These colours are very fitting with the theme of the digipak, and the rounded pea pods mimic the rounded fonts and rounded edges of the digipak framing.

Insert lyric pages

This photograph shows the first page of the insert. The artist has used the double spread to show a rough, sketchy looking shot of lyric scribblings and half of the artists guitar also looking very worn. This gives connotations of age and also documents the process of recording this particular song.  The colours used are again very warm, and reflect the genre with using earthy colours. The use of yellow and blue also reflect possibly the sand and the sea, as the music was recorded in North Shore Hawaii- an area famed for it’s sunny beaches and blue water

Insert lyric pages

This is another shot of the insert, as the artist provided a page for each song that features the lyrics. This enables the audience to become involved in the music, as they can study and possibly sing the lyrics to aid the understanding of the song.  This page is for the song “Breakdown” and offers a large photograph of what looks like a scene of the artist amongst friends possibly creating music. This again gives a reference to how the music was made, and provides a joyful atmosphere to the music.

Spine The spine of a digipak is equally important to the rest of the cover as it can make the CD stand out when many are stacked together. The bright yellow is a good continuation of this theme to make sure this CD gets noticed. The black font against the yellow signifies the importance of the artists name, again promoting and publicising.  The rounded font gives connotations of a slightly softer sound and also follows the warm, rounded theme that runs through this digipak. The album name is featured in the less obvious colour of white against yellow, it still stands out but has less of an impact so that it does not draw your attention away from the artist’s name.  The record label is also evident upon the spine, but again does not draw the attention away from the artist.

Back Cover The back cover provides a list of the songs in the simple rounded non serif font that is carried throughout the didgipak and the cover. The artwork silhouette style is also continued with the subtle use of a palm tree trunk running along the side of the frame.  A link to the website for onepercentfortheplanet.org is also visible alongside the artists website jackhonsonmusic.com and the record company’s bushfirerecords.com as the artist has a strong environmental views that he promotes alongside his music. This further enhances the artists link to nature in his artwork.